Cyan Hair, Crimson Eyes
by Phoenix To Flame
Summary: She is what he swore to destroy, she once was what his family swore to protect. She may be something more than both. Seth doesn't know. All he knows is that something compels him to protect her even though she could be his worst foe, or his greatest desire. SethxEirika vampire AU.
1. Chapter 1

So this actually originally started as part of my drabble collection that I'm going to be posting as well as I complete them, there are two drabbles that can definitely be noted as also taking place in this AU, but it quickly grew out of my control and 2,400 words later, I became aware that this was a much longer story than I thought. Though I'm not very upset with that, considering what I've got so far.

I like vampires, I like vampires with interesting quirks to their immortality. I like vampires who lie on a spectrum of good and evil and all the shades in between, and I like SethxEirika. So let's see how this unholy mix comes together, because I have some idea of what's coming next, but not much.

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><p>He chose the life of a vampire hunter not for the glory or the thrill of it, but because it was needed, and he could do it. What made him stand out from the rest was his chosen weapon. Unlike the new guns that many hunters were taking to because they were fast enough in firing to counter a vampire's speed, he preferred to stick with the silver lance that had been passed down in his family since the days when they served the royal family of Renais. For this, he had been dubbed the Silver Knight, a title that he would answer to, but not acknowledge beyond that.<p>

It was certainly not the most glamorous life to live, but he took pride in the attempts to clean up the streets of the riffraff that had been changed by others, somehow while anyone could be changed, it was only those out at night when the others appeared that were, and after a century of this, no one in their right mind went out after sunset.

He supposed that this eliminated him from the right minded group, but the risks were something he accepted. He walked the streets with lance in hands, watching for the shifts in shadows under the glaring streetlamps that were still fire instead of transitioning to the new electricity bigger cities were adapting in a hope that it might be close enough to sunlight to drive the monsters away, and never backed down from a challenge.

It was on one of these nights, a night where he wore a heavy woolen cloak to keep out the chill of the light rain that had been misting down all day, that he found her.

At first, he thought that she was human, it was unusual for female vampires to exist since the threat to them from the monsters that roamed the streets was often greater than it was for men, but then he saw that her clothes were a hundred years old in fashion, and probably a hundred years old in wear as well. She cringed in the alley where he ran across her, and he wouldn't have even noticed her were it not for the lace of her dress.

He wasn't really quite sure what to do. Most vampires caught in this position either ran or attacked with the intention of adding him to their ranks forcibly. She just stayed there, shaking in the rain.

Seth was not the sort of man to attack those who did not attempt to cause harm to him or another person first, and he could not be certain that she was entirely like the monsters that stalked the night. Something seemed off about her, like she was more than she appeared. He did not lower his lance point though.

She was the first to speak, her voice high and clear and soft like the rain on them both. "Are you going to kill me?" she asked, and she sounded like she was no older than sixteen, a girl still. She also sounded terribly defeated and tired. "If so, then just do it."

A small step to the left let the light behind him illuminate her a little more through the rain, and he saw a glimpse of long hair in what might have been light blue trailing down her dress. Most people didn't have blue hair, it was the color of nobility. Her dress was torn and stained with mud, but still well cared for despite that.

He was more certain now that she was not willingly what she was. "Why?" he asked, aware that as a hunter, it was tantamount to suicide to let his guard down around a vampire. But he'd met one long ago when he started who had been a healer in his life, and had remained one in undeath, simply because that was who he had been in the beginning. Perhaps she was similar. "If you wanted to die, you could simply wait for the sunrise."

She laughed, but there was no humor in it. "I can't go through with it," she said in that same dead voice. "I've tried." Her skirts rustled wetly as she stood up, moving slowly enough that she seemed more human. "I don't want to hurt you." she said softly, and now he could see everything but her face. Definitely she'd been around for a while, there was embroidery on her dress that hadn't been done since machine sewing had become common. "Please, just end this."

On one hand, it would be easy. She was not guarding herself at all, and he was fast enough with the lance that she wouldn't be able to strike back before he pierced her heart. On the other hand...he felt like he knew her in some way. Not that he had met her, but that he knew her. The long hair in that bright shade of blue was definitely familiar in a distant sense. And that made him want to understand a little more and not kill her just yet.

Strangely enough, the decision was made by the onset of a different vampire, one without any regard for life. He came tearing around the corner, and his instincts went into hyper mode. Pushing the girl back behind him, he swung his lance up at the new threat just in time to slice open the arm aimed straight at his neck.

The vampire let out a howl of rage as the silver drew stolen blood to fall on the stones, mixing into the rain and washing away and clutched at his arm before redoubling his attack. This had to be a young vampire, one without the experience of fighting a hunter without fear. It was easy to circle the tip of his lance around his arm to catch him in the chest, the sharp metal combined with both of their momentom piercing his ribs and going into his heart.

The monster doubled over with a groan of pain as his undead heart ceased to be, and he collapsed into ashes on the end of his spear. Seth allowed himself one deep breath to recenter his head and listened for the sound of any other vampires coming, keeping the girl behind him safe. A part of his mind was aware that if she was like the others, he was truly about to die for this.

"There are no others," she said softly, startling him. "The closest is miles away from here." A pause, and she said. "V-Valter is out tonight, so no one dares intrude while he hunts."

Valter, one of the older scourges of the night. Anyone who knew of vampires as more than monsters of the dark, who came out and if they were kind ate those they came across, knew of Valter. Old enough that his reputation had spread to many countries, he had become somewhat of a boogieman, and it was never really quite a certainty that he was in one place and not another. Sometimes he wondered if the monster that was spoken of really still existed.

It seemed perhaps he did, or at least someone who had taken his name. Though that was relying on the word of another vampire. "How do you know this?"

A soft sound behind him, perhaps her realizing that she had given away more than she intended. "I...that is..." she began, and he turned around to watch her as she paused, "I can sense where other vampires are."

How curious. He knew that most vampires could sense prey even without the naturally heightened hunter senses they got, a reason why he never ever let himself think he was in danger so that he would not project the prey sense, but he'd never heard of a vampire who could sense others. Perhaps it had to do with the circumstances in which she'd been changed, but he wasn't sure.

The air seemed to grow colder as something old and evil stirred in the city. Even without senses like vampires, he knew when an apex predator was around. He could hear his heart beating in his ears, and adjusted the lance in his grip. In front of him, the female vampire froze and he could see her lips move in a silent prayer. He could almost see her eyes under the hood now. Then she turned towards the mouth of the alley, cloak spraying water from the hem onto his feet, looking straight at something too far away for him to see.

Seth had never been afraid of vampires that he could remember. Since he was very young, he knew he was going to grow up to eradicate the world of them. He didn't even know what it was like to be afraid of them.

Now he thought he might have a clue. While all vampires could exclude an aura, usually one to lure in their victims to be either dinner or to spread the curse, this one was meant to warn off other predators and crush prey with the terror of the unknown. And even he wasn't immune to it.

The vampire in front of him stood frozen for a moment before turning around and grabbing his wrist, pulling him into a run away from whatever stood at the mouth of that alley. He stumbled along after her, unable to break free of her super human strength, and the aura radiated maliciousness behind them. Yet the female vampire did not stop running.

In a voice that was far too calm for the mood, she asked "do you have a place you can hide? A place with a threshold?" as they whipped around a corner fast enough that if it hadn't been for her grip, he would have fallen down. As it was, he skidded on wet stones. The aura kept the same distance, making sure they knew they were being followed. "I can outrun him, but you can only stop him with a threshold."

Of course he had a place with a threshold. Anyone sensible did. Not that he could tell her what with trying to keep up with her unnatural speed. His lance rebounded off the ground as he let the tip fall a little too low and he winced at the scraping sound. His breath practically rattled in his lungs and a stitch grew in his side.

Seth couldn't tell if she knew he was unable to talk, or was just taking advantage of the fact that she knew exactly what was chasing them, but she ran straight for a church with candles still burning inside, the door always left unlatched for anyone foolish or unlucky to be outside after nightfall, and literally threw him at the door. He hit the ground rolling, but it still scraped skin off of his face and hands. He was on his feet a moment later though, instincts telling him to _not let his guard down at any cost._

What he could see through the pouring rain was the female vampire lowering her hood, staring away from him into the deep of the night. Then she said in her same high, clear soft voice. "He is not yours. Not tonight."

A dark chuckle rang out from what seemed like everywhere. "Eirika..." it purred dangerously, simultaneously playful and threatening. "What have I told you about interfering with my hunt?"

He pointed his lance straight ahead while backing up towards the doorway, trying to pinpoint where the other vampire was as the female spoke again. "He will not be yours, Valter." she said with more courage in her voice than when she spoke of him. "He has crossed the threshold."

Seth watched through the open door, knowing that neither of them could cross the line unless they destroyed the door from outside. The light inside the church lit up the female vampire's hair, showing it indeed as the near cyan color of the royal family. The aura and the voice grew angrier. "Strong girl..." he growled, and Seth pointed his lance directly in front of him. Far off, two red lights blinked once, and the voice came again. "Interfere again, and you will suffer the consequences." Then the red lights abruptly vanished, followed by the cessation of the aura till the night grew too calm.

The female vampire still stood in front of the church, the rain soaking her hair till it plastered her face. "Silver Knight," she said softly, "you should shut the door. He is gone. He cannot touch you tonight."

And for some reason, he didn't. Royal blue hair, the dress that was embroidered so finely, and of course, what the voice had called her, he though he knew just who she was. And why she wasn't like the other vampires he'd fought. She couldn't cross the threshold, but she could hear him. "Your highness, I don't believe I can," he said slowly, remembering the stories of the lost princess, of how her loyal knight had been found dead, his silver lance at his side, completely drained of blood. How he had been laid out like the most honored knights in the kingdom. "My family still swears loyalty to the royal family of Renais."

Just as slowly, she turned around, her red eyes catching the candlelight till it seemed like a fire burned within them, her hand near where her heart would be. "I am not that woman," she said in a whisper, but seeing her face finally, he was absolutely certain that he was right. "She died long ago."

"My lady," he answered, stepping back over the threshold, knowing that he was dead if this didn't work, and yet that it was the right answer. He set his lance on the ground, and knelt, like his father had taught him to do if they ever found the lost princess, "With all due respect, you still are Princess Eirika, and I am your knight, if you will accept my lance."

She looked trapped, afraid. Humanizing vampires was a quick way to end up dead, but with every passing second, he knew more and more that it wasn't with her. "You know what I am," she said, bewilderment clear in her tone and her face, "why would you do this?"

Seth remained on one knee, lance at his side, and knew that everything hinged on what he said next. "Because even though you have been changed, you are still the princess."


	2. Chapter 2

I wasn't expecting the second chapter to be finished quite as fast as it was, but here it is. And the third chapter hopefully won't be long behind it.

One of my reviewers expressed a concern that this would be a story where the vampires angst over what they are and moan about being a monster and trying to fight their nature, all common pit traps of vampire stories. I aim to avoid that, mostly because I don't think Eirika is the type to do that, nor would she have her whole nature changed with her body. I also aim to play around with some of the conceptions about vampires and how society reacts to what is essentially a predator made from them, only stronger, faster and more dangerous. So we shall see how this plays out...

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><p>Out of all the things Seth could have said in his life that would have shocked those who knew him, and caused those who didn't to accuse him of being mad or trying to jest by going straight into the ridiculous, the fact that he had a vampire hiding in his basement had to be at the top of the list, if not off it entirely due to being simply that impossible.<p>

Nevertheless, it was completely true. He had gotten her to return with him before sunrise, with the offer of having a place where she didn't have to hide from the daylight, and she'd gone into the basement shortly before dawn. All he'd done was make sure that his door was locked before he'd gone to sleep off the interesting night for most of the day.

Now he was sitting in his small kitchen with a printed book, reading about the Renais royal family to see if he could find out just exactly when Eirika had vanished and occasionally casting glances at the basement door, shut tightly with no light seeping under the crack. It had never occurred to him before to wonder if vampires slept, since they all hid so securely from any traces of sunlight that finding them was rather like finding the lost continent of Tellius. If she was asleep, it certainly wasn't his right to disturb her.

He turned another of the crisp pages, enjoying the rare relaxation that was reading, the only reason he hadn't reached the chapters about the princess was that he didn't quite want the moment to end. The late afternoon sunlight streamed in through his window, coloring it red and gold. Outside the open window, he could hear talking and laughter, a complete contrast from the absolute silence after sunset. Though even now he could hear the way that people were on edge, aware that their safety was running out.

Turning another page, he glanced over to the door again, something that he'd been doing every few moments so much since he'd woken up that it was unconscious now. He knew the rough history that had been passed down by his family of what had happened, a foe they thought had long since been killed had risen again and snuck into the castle the day before the princess's coronation and stolen her away, and now it was confirmed that he had changed her as well. His ancestor, the one he was named after, had ridden out to find her, but disappeared as well and his body was found later, laid in repose and drained of blood. At the time, it had been presumed that whatever had kidnapped the princess had killed him as well, but there had never been an explanation for the way that he was found. When the princess's body never reappeared, but others began to be changed, only those who were out after dark, some began to suspect that she had become a creature of the night.

It seemed that all of their suspicions were correct. She had been unable to cross his threshold till he invited her in, and in the weak candlelight in his home, her eyes had been the color of drying blood, dark and tepid.

Seth returned to his book, looking on the tale of her grandfather, who had ended a war for succession by arranging the diplomatic meetings that arrived at a conclusion that while not what either party had started out wanting, were willing to agree to. He had heard that she was much like him, preferring words to weapons, and if their encounter with the voice she had called Valter was anything to go by, it wasn't entirely untrue.

The sunlight sank away quickly, a sign of the oncoming winter when night was longest. The voices outside died away and turned into the sound of doors locking and windows shuttering. Tonight, the sky was clear. He preferred clear nights the most to hunt by, even if the lamps went out and the moon was veiled, he could still see by the stars.

It was just as the sun sank completely under the horizon when he heard sounds in the basement. He thought that it might have been the princess making sure that he knew she was awake, since vampires usually only made sound while fighting or dying. He shut the book carefully, putting it on the shelf with the two others he allowed himself to have as a distraction from his work, and waited for her.

The door creaked open slowly, and he saw the hem of her dress first, still covered in dried mud. "Seth?" she said softly, looking out, her hair braided loosely, looking bedraggled. "Seth?"

He nodded to her from where he stood by his kitchen table, having decided to be close enough that she could see him when she exited without being a threat. "Your highness."

She sighed and shut the door. "I'm no longer a princess," she admonished him again in that soft voice, "I stopped being one when this happened." Despite the weight of the words, she said them as if they were no more than a simple fact, not a loss of the life she had been born and raised into. "I am what I am, no more."

He inclined his head, "yes, your highness." He answered, not allowing himself the intimacy of her name.

It was small and didn't last long, but her lips curved in a smile for a moment. Her lips moved as if she meant to say something else, but he couldn't hear if she actually vocalized what she was thinking. A moment later, she answered loud enough for him to hear, "will you hunt them tonight?" with a furtive glance at the silver lance mounted on the wall near his door.

"Yes," he said without hesitation. "It is my duty."

That drew another small smile from her, just as fleeting as the first. "Do you always hunt alone?" she asked, reaching up to touch the shaft with an air of fondness, her red eyes soft. Again, he had that sense of remembering something he'd never known, that she'd always admired his skill with a lance. "Most don't anymore."

He walked over to take the lance off the wall, the silver untarnished from all of the vampires he'd killed with it. "Most aren't brave enough to fight at all." he said, and he could feel a chill in the air standing so close to her. "Those who are...use guns now. I prefer this."

She nodded, her limp braid swaying slightly. "It suits you." she said with the sense that she was thinking of someone else. "Guns are faster, but they don't affect us the same way."

The way she talked was raising questions he wasn't going to ask her. She stepped back from him, and the chill in the air faded. It was like she was drinking in the heat and releasing none of her own. She wasn't wearing her cloak anymore, so he could see that the condition of her dress was as bad everywhere else as the hem was. He quickly turned his attention back to putting the lance away so that he could get his armor on. "Why do you ask, your highness?" he asked as he turned away from her to shrug on the leather vest with silver chain in between the lining and the outside. While silver wasn't exactly a vampire's bane, it tended to hold up better against attacks than most other metals.

"I thought I might go with you," she said neutrally, and he turned his head to look at her as he adjusted his vest so that it sat right. She was looking at his lance again and she'd pulled her hood up. "My...gift might be useful to you. Valter has left, so the others will be back again."

Should he? He had to admit, the idea of directly hunting them down rather than relying on his status as human to act as a lure so that he could kill them was tempting. Perhaps they would work well together, though there was no way to know without trying. And it felt oddly right, the idea of fighting at her side. Like he had done it before. He was having a lot of moments of what could be considered odd around her.

Seth let the silence wait between them as he finished suiting up. Outside, the only lights came from the half moon and the streetlamps burning away the night. Eirika waited for his answer, standing so still he might have thought her a statue. Her red eyes were sharp and clear under her hood, and he had no idea what she was thinking at all. "Very well," he said, the words not feeling quite right, but they were what came to mind. "There's no reason you can't."

The vampire smiled her soft smile, and she followed him like a silent shadow out the door. He could almost forget she was there but for the chill in the air and the prickle on the back of his neck warning him.

They stopped at a cross street, and he looked to her. Under the hood, he could see her eyes start to glow, a beacon to whomever bothered to look. Her lips were slightly parted and her nostrils flared as if she was trying to smell their prey. "Three streets down...two across.." she murmured, her voice barely loud enough to carry. "She is young..."

He didn't even have to ask her which way to go, Eirika turned on her heel and ran silently like a deer, her feet barely seeming to touch the stones as she lifted her dress out up to run faster. He followed behind her as quickly as he could, and he knew that she was slowing down for him.

Turning a corner, he could see their quarry under a lamp, sucking the blood and life from a stray dog that hadn't been lucky. Eirika stood in the very center of the street, her eyes burning bright red as she stared at the other vampire. He couldn't tell what she was doing, but he didn't waste the time she'd given him, centering his grip on his lance as he started to walk down towards the woman.

She had to be young like Eirika said, she didn't look up from her dog till he was close enough to scratch her with the silver tip, and she had gore smeared on her face when she looked up at him, hissing in anger before dropping the dog and springing up at him.

He smacked her in the face with the end of the lance, sending her sprawling on the stones as he neatly sidestepped her. She turned to hiss again, black hair hanging over her face messily. Behind her, he could see the flicker of a blue dress from the shadows and a strange glimmer of silver as well, though he didn't have time to look closer before the vampire was attacking again.

This time, Seth had to sidestep her quickly, he didn't have time to attack. The woman caught herself on a building edge and leaped at him again. Her hiss of anger turned to a screech of agony as Eirika quite literally appeared from the shadows, kneeling on the ground as the vampire turned to dust over her. Seth lowered his lance as she stood up and dropped her hood, her eyes no longer glowing. But that wasn't as distracting as the long silver sword she held expertly in her hand that she'd just used to impale the vampire.

Eirika smiled at him as she brushed some of the dust off of her shoulder, balancing the point of her sword on the tip of her shoe like she knew it wouldn't pierce the leather. "Did you think I fought with teeth and nails as well?" she asked with the first hint of humor he'd heard since he'd met her, delicately sheathing her sword in a scabbard he hadn't seen under her cloak before.

And Seth had to admit that it did make sense that she would still fight with her rapier.

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><p><em>'It hurts...it hurts' was all that rang through her mind as she curled up on the floor in the remains of her dress. The bite on her breast burned icy cold like iron in the height of winter. Blood stained the floor and her legs and the smell wouldn't go away.<em>

_ She knew he was still there, watching her like a cat watches an injured mouse, too amused to put it out of its misery. The very thought of him made her want to vomit and run away and curl up, but she couldn't move. Everything hurt...her body...her soul._

_ "Don't fight it," her nightmare crooned, making her convulse on the floor. "It only hurts for so long. Then you'll be perfect, my woman of the night."_

_ She stifled a sob of panic, every part of her violently rejecting whatever he'd done to her. Memories, unbidden, sprang to mind, of being helpless and ripped apart while he cackled over her. She wanted to _die_ to escape from them. _

_ The bite on her chest flared into sharp agony and she screamed as something inside poisoned her and changed her into something never meant to be. Somewhere in the endless darkness, she heard Valter laughing madly, gloating over his destruction of her._

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><p>It may take a little longer for the next chapter to come out, if only because real life is finally starting to work out.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

It occurs to me now that I should have put a trigger warning for Eirika's little section at the bottom, so this is the trigger warning for both last chapter and this chapter. Also I have a little more solid idea of what I want to do with this, it's just pacing and development that I've got to worry about now.

Also I'm dropping hints about just what happened to the first Seth...

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><p>After a week, her presence and the chill in the air around her no longer disturbed him, it was just a reminder of his new housemate. While she rarely spoke unless he asked her something first, she always did respond without hesitation, as if she was waiting for him to speak. Often to admonish him for continuing to address her by her title, not that he had stopped. Regardless of her state of undeath, he still was going to address her with the respect she deserved.<p>

It was another week before he realized that she was sending chills down his spine again, and why. All vampires had a pallor to them from the lack of living blood in their system, but hers was more prominent than it had been before. He had no idea if a vampire could starve to death, but definitely they still grew hungry like any other being.

And he didn't know how to manage it. So far no one knew that he was harboring a vampire in his basement by day, but if he started doing anything unusual such as finding animals for her to feed off of, it wouldn't remain a secret for much longer.

They were out hunting when it first occurred to him. Eirika still wore her old cloak, but he'd managed to convince her into newer clothes and she now wore her rapier openly on her hip, making her appear much more like a novice vampire hunter to any who happened to look out the window while they were patrolling the streets, despite the fact that she had proven herself better than he was at getting them by surprise. "Your highness," he began, shifting his lance to his other hand and tucking it under his arm to protect his fingers from the cold, "you said that it's a vampire's venom that changes a human right,"

Eirika looked at him almost drily, the hood concealing her blood red eyes from everyone else. "I am no princess now," she reminded him wearily, "and yes. Though I don't see the point of asking right now, unless you've been bitten."

He shook his head as her eyes flashed for a second, sending out her senses over the city. Since she'd joined him, the number of vampires had declined dramatically. "No, that wasn't my reason." he said, wondering what had come over him if the idea that had come to mind was really one he'd had on his own. "So the fangs have to be involved?"

Eirika ignored him, looking down the alley. "The city is empty of others...though I can't sense beyond the gates." she told him, one hand balanced on her rapier to draw it at a second's notice. "The last of them must have run just after sunset."

Seth frowned, but he had no reason not to trust her at this point. "So the city is free?"

She nodded, a slightly odd smile on her face that looked even odder without being able to see her eyes. "Yes, of everyone but me. I suppose once I started hunting again, they ran before I chased them down. We should return home if we won't have to fight tonight."

He couldn't find any way to argue with her on that, and they turned at the next corner to return to his house. "You hunted them before?" he asked, choosing to let his initial question lapse. He could ask again when they were behind closed doors.

Eirika nodded and he could see the fine braid of her hair falling out of the hood. "Yes, after I...dealt with the realization that I was always going to be this...I decided to not let others suffer this fate." She smiled darkly, clearly not fond of the memories that came to mind. "Eternity is a long time to mourn the loss of humanity, but I moved on." Her voice grew even darker when she added, "I've made my peace with who I am now."

He took the unvoiced hint to stop asking her about her past just like he had every other time he'd asked. He supposed that if their positions were reversed, he wouldn't want her dredging up painful subjects whenever he said anything that could be taken that way. After two blocks of silence, Eirika said with a forced lightness, "Please explain the lights you talked about being set up in larger cities again."

Seth chuckled as he moved his lance back to his dominant hand, already getting the key to his door ready even though they still had blocks to go. "Humans have discovered how to harness electricity. It is hoped that those streetlamps will be bright enough to act as sunlight to vampires, though if fire hasn't and light magic hasn't, I'm not sure this will either."

Eirika shook her head. "It has to be the sunlight." she told him, confirming something he'd wondered about vampires for a while, "though older, wickeder vampires can no longer go out under moonlight either. It's why Valter..." her voice faltered for a moment before she continued, "Valter no longer goes out unless its clouded over. The moonlight could burn him as quickly as the sun could me."

He didn't ask about Valter, though he wanted to. He knew very well now that she hated him beyond hatred, and that he was responsible for her change. That was all he needed to know for now. "Are you sure that no more will come here?"

"I didn't say that," she answered, stepping aside so that he could go up the stairs to his door first. "I said they all left. Sometimes they come back, most of the time they wait till I move on. To those Valter changes, I am as bad as hunters."

Seth struggled with balancing the lance and the key and the stiff lock till Eirika took the lance from him. He still hadn't figured out a way that she could touch the door or pass the threshold without his permission, but he didn't stop to wonder why as he stepped inside. "I give you permission to enter, and to cross." He said almost by rote, the words holding a kind of power to him. The air shivered as she entered again and dropped her hood as he shut the door. In the wavering candlelight, her eyes shone as bright as the last drop of heart's blood and he thought he could see her fangs in prominence. Without the moonlight to pale everything, she was noticeably more pallid now.

Eirika put his lance on the hooks by the door and shed her cloak. It had taken her a week to be comfortable enough with him that she would take it off, but now she set it on the coat rack next to the door and took off her sword, leaning it against the wall in the sheath. "With this town...I suspect that they won't return for a while," she said, returning to their previous conversation. "Usually they only prey on small towns till either enough hunters or a single good one kills enough to make it not worth it. The bigger cities are worse. There's always someone to either feed off of or toy with."

Seth hung up his cloak as well and went to stir the fire in the wood stove. It had burned down to flickering embers in the time since they'd left, but a few sticks revived it and logs fed it to a comfortable heat. Eirika came to stand by it, soaking in the heat like she was drinking it. The air still was colder around her, but not so deathly so. "I'd forgotten how nice a good fire is," she said, almost musing. Her eyes were far away and he chose not to interrupt.

Leaving her to the heat and her thoughts, he decided to check on the condition of his lance, taking it back down and sitting on the couch. Sometimes the wood in the shaft cracked when the weather changed for the colder, and it was better to discover before the snows hit. Eirika looked over at him only for a second before reaching her slim hands to the fire, the light giving them a rosy glow.

He ran the pads of his fingers over the wood, feeling for the smallest flaws in the grain that would signal a crack to come, knowing that the silver itself only needed polishing and that he could do by daylight. This shaft had held up better than some, he couldn't feel any fracturing in the wood yet, though he suspected that he would need to replace it still before winter.

He looked over at the vampire enjoying the fire, a very small pure smile on her lips, and he felt like he'd seen it before again. At this point, those flashes of deja vu weren't as shocking as they once had been, since they only seemed to connect with Eirika doing or saying a certain thing. Almost like he was remembering her from long ago. The light glowing on her face almost took away the pallor that made her look more and more like a corpse with each passing day.

That reminded him of his truly foolish thought, a gamble that he was more and more inclined to take despite what instinct and wisdom said about it. He'd heard of one hunter who'd used her blood before to draw in vampires by pretending weakness and injury before striking while they were feeding, but she had been the only one it had worked for, possessed with a supernatural sense of just when to strike and enough strength to shove the knife she'd used through their hearts. They'd called her the maiden of the dawn or something like that.

But the idea he had was too mad to work. Sure, the hunter had never been changed, she was one of the few to retire and die at a very old age, but it was rumored that her heritage was not entirely human and that was why she was immune to the venom. He was almost painfully human.

And yet a part of him did not want to imagine her starving, or worse, resorting to leaving just so that she wouldn't. It was the same part that was always facing tinges of remembrance, telling him things he shouldn't have known. A part that had always been very fond of Princess Eirika.

He looked up at her again, steeling himself to do the first truly stupid thing he had done since he'd allowed a vampire into his home, and saw the way that her lips curved as she drank in the fire, her eyes as gentle as he'd ever seen them, the peace on her face.

He was about to wreck it on a gamble and he could only regret it so much. Steeling his will, he cupped the long sharp point of the lance and looked at his reflection in the tarnished metal before gouging his finger on the point.

Blood welled up almost immediately and he _heard _her gasp quite loudly for her usual level of sound. Her eyes flashed up to his face and he could read the horror and the hunger in them unusually easily. Just as easily could he read the way that her lips parted and she breathed in and out not with the need for air, but with the sense of an animal smelling wounded prey and closing in for the kill. "Seth..." she breathed out, nostrils flaring. "What are you doing?" she asked him with noticeable difficulty in her voice. "Why?"

He gritted his teeth as the first drop fell on the floor, staining the wood. "You shouldn't waste this," he said, struggling to keep his voice even. Despite knowing her, and his years of hunting, instinct overrode everything else and told him to _get the fuck away from the hungry vampire before he died_, but he forced himself to sit there. "Your highness," he said, gritting his teeth.

Eirika licked her lips, looking very very torn. "Oh Seth..." she whispered, sounding unexpectedly hurt, like it was something she'd faced before and failed. "you shouldn't have..." And yet her hunger was overwhelming her like he thought it would, her eyes blazing for a second before dying down. She took one staggering step forwards before stopping herself again. "Don't you dare ever do this again," she told him sharply before walking forwards again and kneeling on the floor next to his seat. Staring at his finger with a mix of revulsion and desire, she whispered "I won't forgive you if you do..."

Then she took his hand very gingerly, the bitter cold of her skin sending a shock through his body, and placed the very tip of his finger, right where the blood was still welling up, in her mouth. He could feel the curve of one fang against the edge of his finger as she shut her eyes and let out another breath like she was sighing with something other than the release of hunger. Seth had to keep himself from moving away as every muscle in his body tensed up, but she did not hold onto his hand tightly or bite down. Instead she licked the blood from his finger with her tongue, slowly and soothingly like a cat groomed itself.

There had to be something in vampire saliva that made wounds bleed more, he could feel the pressure as blood rushed to the cut on his finger only for her to lick it away almost reverently. The sensations in his body shifted slightly, while the horror was still there, there was another sensation disturbing for an entirely different reason. Eirika sucked the blood from his fingertip almost lovingly, never biting down or putting any pressure on him, but still with an aura of command that made him unable to back away.

It was just when his head was starting to spin that she pulled away suddenly, dropping his hand like a hot coal. Several drops of blood hit the floor before she blurred into the kitchen to throw his dish rag at his head. "Wrap your finger before..." she didn't finish the sentence and instead just motioned wildly at him. Seth obeyed after a second, now that she was no longer feeding, the wound had started to throb painfully and steadily with his racing pulse. Eirika looked more shaken than he'd seen her before, but more lifelike as well. He couldn't tell if it was the fire or the fresh blood that had flushed her cheeks, but he was pleased in the parts of him that weren't tingling with fear or desire that his gamble had somehow worked.

After a few moments, the throbbing subsided some and he let up the pressure on his finger. Eirika still stood by the fire, looking anywhere but at him. Though it was only just after midnight, she said "I think I'll return to the basement now," her voice shaking and cold at the same time. "I will see you tomorrow night." And she stalked off, her movements stiff and angry.

Seth watched her go, and the door slam behind her before the whole room went silent, then laid back his head against the top of the couch. "Well, Seth," he said to himself, staring at the ceiling, "you just may be a fool."

The ceiling had no answer for him.

_The change had been the second worst thing she'd ever experienced in her life, barring that which she would not think of. Every part of her body had burned before turning to ice before sending her back into throes of agony, and had seemed to last forever. She had no idea between when the bite had taken effect and when it finished, but it felt like eons, a dragon lifespan at least._

_ Valter had been there when she opened her eyes, strangely visible even without light in the cave. "Ah, she awakens." he said with satisfaction coloring his tone. "I thought you might not."_

_ She shook as she tried to crawl away from him, but nothing would respond. She felt so cold now...as cold as death. "Stay away," she choked out, panic filling her at the sight of him. "Don't come close."_

_ He didn't listen to her, instead she felt his fingers, now the same temperature as her body grab her chin and force her to look at him till she squeezed her eyes shut. "Yes, the change is done," he said even more dangerously, his other hand going over where he'd left the bite. "You're like I am now."_

_ Tears would have sprung to her eyes had she had any, but they felt dry. That didn't stop the emotions that came with terror and the need to escape him at any cost. She couldn't move, couldn't speak. Again, she was helpless as he pressed an icy kiss to her unresponding lips, prepared to destroy her again._

_ 'Seth,' she thought hopelessly, 'save me.'_


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry for the longer break between things, between starting a new job and general writers block, I spent a lot of time with about three quarters of this chapter written and just not knowing how to end it. I'm not particularly satisfied with it, but I don't know if that's because it's actually bad or if it's just because it's not as long as the previous couple chapters. Oh well, at least something happened in it.

* * *

><p>She didn't speak to him for a week after, or even come out of the basement. And when she did come out, she still spoke to him tersely and didn't initiate any conversation. Seth wondered just what he'd done to offend her that much, if offering his blood had been something he shouldn't have done for more reasons than he thought, but he didn't broach the topic with her. As winter set in fully, the first snows falling the day she spoke to him again, though only very briefly, the more he knew that vampires wouldn't hunt when their footprints could be followed by daylight or determined hunters. Or maybe they were just cold. A Renais winter was never kind.<p>

Certainly Eirika seemed to be cold, whenever she came up, she sat so close to the fire that he thought the flames might catch on her skirt, and she shook faintly like she was shivering. With her hair braided so it fell over one shoulder in a style that made her look younger and a new dress that he'd bought her to try and make up for offending her, she seemed almost vulnerable in a way he was sure she hadn't been since she was human. She stared into the fire as if searching for answers in the dancing flame and didn't come closer than ten feet to him. Which didn't matter as much now that her hunger had been sated for a while. She didn't make him nervous anymore.

It was snowing again that night, and the cold was bothering him as well. He'd closed the thick sun-blocking curtains and kept the fire going all day to try and get his house to be warmer, but it only worked so much. At least with the very early sunset, she was coming out earlier and earlier, sometimes while there was still enough residual light in the sky that he hadn't lit the lamps yet. She was curled up in front of the fire again, arms crossed over her knees as she stared into the fire, completely still. He couldn't see her face from where he stood by the stove, waiting for the hiss of the kettle that came seconds before the screech, but he was sure that she had the same vacant gaze that he'd seen before.

"Why do you hunt them?" she asked suddenly, her voice as dull as a rusted knife. Seth looked at her in surprise as she broke her silence and narrowly avoided pouring boiling water over his hand. She hadn't even looked away from the fire, but she must have sensed his surprise. "Most people have a reason...so what's yours?"

Seth set the kettle back down near the stove and picked up his mug, the heat soaking straight through the pottery into his fingers, and walked over closer. If she was going to talk, he might as well make it easier and not loom over her. "My family raised me to be a hunter," he said, sitting on the couch, still far enough away that she could have the space she desired. "It's been our job since the first vampires rose."

Eirika nodded slightly, "I suppose I understand that..." she said just as blankly, "you do seem like a man who fights battles he shouldn't for others who won't thank him." She finally looked at him without that little flinch she'd had since that night. "Why did you do it?"

He knew that she'd changed the subject, that she'd asked the question hanging between them for a fortnight, and at least he had an answer for it. He sat back in his chair, settling his tea down on the little table so that he couldn't spill it while talking. "I don't know. Because I couldn't think of another method, because something told me to." That feeling of remembrance rose again as something else occurred to him. "Because it was necessary."

Eirika drew in a sharp breath, and at first he thought the look on her face was anger. Then she leaned her head down and he realized it was sorrow. "You are the same," she whispered, and he was sure he wasn't meant to hear it by the way that it just barely reached his ears. Her red eyes were as expressive as he'd ever seen them, showing a layer he didn't know existed. Grief, old and scarred, and he didn't know why that was what he saw, but he knew that's what it was. "You aren't the first man to make that sacrifice," she said louder, looking at him again with eyes so sad and old that it hurt to see. "But the last one who did..."

She didn't have to finish her sentence for him to know what had happened. "He died," he said, watching her intently. "Something happened and he died."

Eirika nodded again, swallowing hard before her eyes shuttered closed and some of the pain left her face. "I don't pretend to be one of the ones who wallows in pity and sorrow over what I've lost, but even I still have my guilt." She twisted her hands up tightly in her dress till they disappeared into the blue fabric, setting her face almost mulishly. "That's why I won't allow you to do it again."

"I'm sorry?" he said, setting his tea back down rather than taking the sip he'd intended.

Eirika met his eyes squarely and for just a second she seemed to be how she had been described long ago, fierce and full of life, but also protective and kind. The kind of woman who he'd known he would follow without question. "I don't understand why, but I want to keep you safe. Even when you make me angry, I won't let anyone else hurt you. Not even Valter."

She stood up to her full height, her shoulders back and her chin high. "I forbid you to do such a thing again," she said powerfully, crimson eyes practically glowing, "if you must accept it as an order from your princess, then do so. But you will never, ever do such a foolish thing again." Her mouth twisted wryly as she said "after all, I do have some experience on how to deal with it."

He gave in, how was he supposed to argue with her? Though if she starved herself in an attempt to not bother him, he might have to reconsider. Despite the fact that she was still what he had sworn to kill, he was starting to grow fond of her. "Very well, your highness." he conceded, nodding his head in respect. "I will not do such a thing again."

The corners of her mouth quirked up a little more. "And while I'm doing this," she added, sounding like it was more of an afterthought than the first order, "I order you to stop addressing me that way, and don't do the thing where you nod and say it anyway. Even if I was still the princess, you would be esteemed enough to address me by my name should I demand it. Which I do."

Seth barely suppressed a smile back at her, feeling lighter than he had in a few days. All was forgiven, clearly. Though she was wrong that he would be esteemed enough to address her by name alone, even if she demanded it. There were still many classes between them and her name was too intimate for that. Again, he nodded his head respectfully, acknowledging her request in this. "Very well...Lady Eirika," he said, watching her for her reaction.

There was a moment of exasperation, then of vague amusement, and then she smiled outright, not just the quiet one she did usually. One that made her face light up completely. "That's better," she replied, looking him in the eyes so that he could see that her smile had softened even the bright red of hers. "I think I can accept that for now." Then she sat back down, without the tension that had her curling up against the fire, now she seemed just more comfortable there.

He sipped his tea, now cool enough that it didn't burn his tongue, and watched the firelight dancing off the walls and Eirika's face. "Is there still nothing out there?"

She glanced over at him before shaking her head. "There's nothing to hunt in the snow, either for us or them. Most go south to Grado and the larger cities, or the forests." Her lips curved up slightly. "I wait out the winter instead."

He thought for a second. "Why?" he asked, sipping his tea again. "Is there a particular reason?"

Eirika shrugged, a gesture made more regal than usual with the way she moved naturally. "I prefer to stay in Renais, even when the winter is hard." The light from the fire made her cheeks seem to glow pink. "Though if you asked me to go with you to Grado, I would come."

He almost choked on his tea "What?" he coughed, setting the cup down before he splashed it on himself. He hadn't said anything about the contents of the letter yet. "What are you talking about?"

The look in her eyes was almost mischievous. "When you hold the letter up so that the fire shines through the paper, I can make out the words sometimes." she told him, linking her hands together loosely over her knees. "I can travel much faster overland than you can when I'm alone, especially during the winter."

Seth coughed again as he continued trying to expel tea from his lungs. "That's good to know," he said hoarsely, wiping his mouth as he breathed in. "Though I don't particularly wish to go to Grado, even if my mother wishes it."

Eirika shrugged as if she knew that whatever he said, they might very well end up going. "Very well," she said, smiling still. "It's up to you."

_She didn't know if he'd lost interest in her, or just had another plan waiting to come to fruition, but he'd left her in the dark that was no longer the same dark all alone for days, with only the emptiness to speak back to her. She thought she might go mad, if she wasn't already._

_ The worst thing about the empty stretches of time besides that she couldn't tell the difference between minutes and days was the slow encroaching of a thirst that sat at the back of her throat, a thirst that could not be quenched no matter how long she drank from the stream that ran at the back of the cave. The longer she sat alone, the worse it grew, till she thought that she might die from it, or lose her mind entirely._

_ What she wanted, she knew the taste of from battle, from split lips, from the time when she was young and fell down and knocked out two of her baby teeth and her mouth hurt for a week straight. When she was...when she was human, it was the hardest thing to acknowledge that she wasn't anymore because there was no word for what she was other than monster, the taste had sickened her, brought bile to the back of her throat. Now it seemed the most delicious thing. Blood._

_ The darkness ate at her mind just as the thirst did, and her will was starting to crumble. Was Valter leaving her all alone till she broke entirely, and became the same monster he was?_


End file.
